A Conversation on Collaborating to Eliminate Food Deserts

LISC Jacksonville executive director Janet Owens recently spoke with WJCT, the area’s NPR affiliate, about the city’s incentive plan to eliminate food deserts and what it will take to make that happen. Owens, who was honored with a OneJax Humanitarian Award in April for her years of service to the city, discussed how that plan will need to a range of interconnected resources. It isn’t just about adding more groceries stores, she said. Partners need to come together to close the gap on the deeper issues that prevent neighborhoods from moving forward, like housing, economic development and employment.

A deeply-reported MarketWatch article unpacks the incredibly complex process of creating affordable housing by profiling an apartment complex in Washington D.C. that LISC has helped preserve. Extensive interviews with our CEO, LISC D.C. executive director Ramon Jacobson and senior program officer Adam Kent are at the heart of this emblematic story of how we bring together private and public capital partners with developers and residents, and work to empower people to stay in the places they call home. A must read.

The Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, part of the U.S. Treasury department, announced the recipients of $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocations for 2019. $60 million was allocated to LISC’s subsidiary, the New Markets Support Company. Since its inception, NMSC has harnessed $1 billion in tax credits to offer flexible capital for projects that benefit low-income communities across the count--projects ranging from Cincinatti’s CityLink Center, home to 15 social service agencies, to a health clinic-plus-grocery store in Brockton, MA to the public library in Petersburg, VA.

Ricardo Flores, ED of LISC San Diego, published an emphatic op-ed in the Voice of San Diego about the desperate need for more local and state spending to alleviate homelessness. As in nearly every part of the country, San Diego’s homeless population is growing, and last year suffered a Hepatitis A outbreak. “Today’s homelessness crisis has the potential to worsen into a catastrophic public health disaster,” warned Flores, explaining that preventive strategies, housing and support services demand much greater investment to head off a larger crisis.

An in depth report from NY1 News explains how the Inclusive Creative Economy Fund has galvanized the future of a venerable downtown theater, La Mama. Thanks to a $3 million line of credit from LISC, the nearly 60-year-old institution, which has nurtured thousands of experimental artists and engages a broad diversity of audiences, is able to renovate its aging building and continue its valuable work. The fund’s model of raising debt capital from an array of impact investors to support creative economies and stimulate job growth, the report noted, can be scaled for communities across the country where real estate costs and other forces threaten local arts and culture.